Gary Neville has revealed that under Roy Hodgson’s management England picked players based on self-belief and continuity, not necessarily on form.
Hodgson, and by association Neville’s, reign at England ended in ignominy after the Three Lions were dumped out of Euro 2016 in the knock-out stages at the hands of Iceland.
The England manager resigned from his post straight after the loss and in the fall-out that followed many criticised the player selection, with Danny Drinkwater one of several players to miss out in the final 23-man squad.
Neville, who also left his post as assistant manager following the embarrassing defeat, has now explained how the hierarchy went about picking players for the tournament.
He told talkSPORT: “We didn’t pick Mark Noble, even though he might have been in better form than Ross Barkley, because we invested in Ross Barkley; he was our man, he was the person who was the most talented player.
“We didn’t pick Danny Drinkwater over Jack Wilshere because we had faith in the ability of Jack Wilshere.
“That’s not to say no-one can break in, but when you go down the route of investing in John Stones, you can’t then pick Phil Jagielka over John Stones for the tournament.
“You have to invest in John Stones, even though Phil Jagielka might be in better form.”
Drinkwater was in Hodgson’s original training squad, but along with Andros Townsend did not make the final cut to travel to France, with Wilshere preferred, despite being on the recovery from a long-term injury.
The Leicester City midfielder, by contrast, helped the Foxes win a historic Premier League title, making 35 appearances, scoring twice and registering seven assists.
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